"Superman
where are you now
Everything's gone wrong somehow
The men of steel, men of power
Are losing control by the hour." - Genesis, Land of
Confusion

From
the desk of Brent Holliday, January 9th:

{In an annoyingly/alarmingly large file synchronized in
Outlook, on the Palm Pilot, in the Blackberry and on the
white board, so that he might see it every time he walks
by while otherwise procrastinating. You know the list
that is all red and past the due date in Outlook? Yeah,
you know the one.}

- correlate El Nino effect on Vancouver weather to
amount of work actually done at early stage high tech
companies

- cancel cloned baby press conference and figure out
another way to get publicity for Greenstone

- worry about the new tax cuts in the US and the
increased spread between their rates and ours and the
impact on keeping/finding high caliber people

- worry some more about world tensions and nuclear
devices

- invest in at least two new deals in IT (joining in
the party of four or five new IT/Communications
companies in Vancouver funded or getting funding in
December/January)

- try not to mention the words tech and recovery in
the same sentence in 2003. Doh!

- write "good luck" cards to even more tech
workers out on the street at Scientific-Atlanta in
Burnaby

- finish spreadsheet analysis of how many video games
are being created to suck the time out of one's day
vs. actual time in one day and then see if video game
business might see a bit of a lull in the next few
years

- start bottle drive and can collecting for next
venture fund

- plan Jean Chretien farewell tour of BC. Twenty-one
gun salute from gun registry participants? Chainsaw
juggling contest with softwood industry workers?
Honorary fence built to sit on for all major issues
that demand leadership? Think. There has to be
something we can do to show our gratitude. I know,
we'll re-name Richmond, "New Shawinigan" and
get tons of free handouts to help our industries to
the detriment of the rest of Canada.

{Scribbled
on the pink sheets that you get from Grand & Toy
that were really only meant to have one phone message
per sheet, but instead have three dozen}

Calls
To Make

-
Larry Campbell, mayor of Vancouver: Threaten large can
of whupass if he kills Olympic bid

- Limited Partners in our fund: Can we go off topic a
bit for our next investment and buy the fast ferries
for a few hundred bucks in the auction next week,
inject some working capital, park them on a new dock
in English Bay and turn one into our new office and
the other into a casino? We'll call one the
"Glen" and the other the "Clark".

- Wendy Stueck, Globe and Mail tech reporter, now
mining reporter: Have something witty to say about
how, apparently, rocks are more exciting than
technology to her newspaper.

- Bill Gates (or Steve if Bill's not in): When will
the .Net marketing smokescreen end and real
interoperating business applications be possible?

- Beaker (aka John Manley, Finance Minister): Dude,
your surplus is mondo huge, man. Don't do any
"legacy" spending for the old fart. Give it
back to us or to the holders of our debt. Save the
rest for the gun registry.

{Wrapped
in reflective material and put in a cement bunker for
opening in a few years time}

Time Capsule/Predictions

-
Only New Year's resolutions kept in 2003 were the ones
about the Stanley Cup and more fun.

- 2003 remained year of consolidation instead of
growth in many technology markets.

- More people found work in technology in BC in 2003
than were let go, stopping an ugly slide of almost
three full years. Similarly, just as many new
companies were funded as were wound up in the year.

- After more than two years of trying, everyone
stopped predicting a tech recovery about June of 2003
and around March of 2005 someone noticed that there
had, in fact, been a modest recovery in technology.

- Vancouver got the Olympic Games for 2010 and decided
that it would leverage that momentum into becoming the
hottest city in North America to work and live in the
first decade of the millennium.

Something Ventured is a bi-weekly column designed
to supplement the T-Net British Columbia web site with
some timely, relevant and possibly irreverent insight
into the industry. I hope to share some of the
perspective and trends that I see in my role as a VC.
The column is always followed by feedback (if its
positive or constructive. I'll keep the flames to
myself, thanks).